The Hand of Madness
by AlexanderLutece
Summary: What does the Ice Prince do when he's not kidnapping princesses or attacking the Fire Kingdom? The answer is quite simple, really- he sits back and tries to remember.


Sitting on his chair in front of the mountain's opening, he looked over the landscape in deep thought, trying to remember. There was something vaguely familiar about it, but he couldn't pinpoint it; too many jumbled memories ran through his head to let him think. It had been four centuries since he'd had a flashback- now, all of his memories were faded and dull, none coming close enough to the surface of his mind for him to remember. All his memories spanned over about one millennium, and he could recall each and every one with surprising clarity. All except for the first sixteen.

He didn't know why, but something inside him yearned to know those first years, to remember them, to _return _to them, and forget his life as it currently stood. Perhaps he was well liked then. Maybe he had many friends. Maybe he had even met a nice girl.

_Odd, _he thought, _That last thought always makes me feel warm._

It didn't matter, though. That was the past, and nothing can last for more than one hundred years, much less a thousand- could it? He'd been alive all this time, perhaps there was another that had been living right along with him.

Turning to his right, he looked at himself in the reflection of the ice. He had smooth, long white hair, an imperial general's suit, ice-blue eyes and a long nose. His right arm was robotic (_"Ow!" _he gasped quietly. Every time he thought about that, he could feel a searing burn on that arm; phantom pains.), though his left was just fine. He was tall and sleek, and his skin was a cold, light blue.

A moment passed, and a bird flew by.

Nothing, as always.

Sighing, he got up and put the chair to the side of the entrance. It had been his daily ritual, ever since the Flame King- who, by all intents, had originally hated him and all he stood for- was unable to bring herself to end his life. There they were, after five hundred years of attacks and threats to the Fire Kingdom delivered by him, personally, and she couldn't do it. He could see it in her eyes, she knew something, she knew _him,_ and not as he was now; she recalled something that revolved around him and his first sixteen years that he couldn't.

He could have been wrong, but the way she looked when he was at the mercy of her fire...she'd never looked like that before. She'd held faces of contempt, pity, hatred, and fear, but this was different. She looked like she was afraid, but at the same time, she didn't. She had looked around, almost as if snapped out of a trance, and seemed to realize that she was about to kill him. Her last words were, _"What have you become..."_, and she stormed off. He thought she said 'Finn' too, but he had no idea what fish had to do with it.

That mystery, however, was to be put on hold.

"Today is Saturday, Jake, and you know what that means!" he proclaimed, hoisting the snow dog into his arms.

"That's right, today, we're taking a visit to Marceline's house! She's always so nice, letting us stay over..."

* * *

**984 YEARS AGO**

"He did WHAT!?"

"He took the crown and forced it onto Finn's head, now please stop screaming!"

"But you have no idea what-"

"Please, Marceline, calm down. If we can just find him and get him to take the crown off-"

"That won't work, Princess...Bubblegum, was it?"

"But why not, Ice- I mean, Simon? In the early stages, it can be taken off at will, right?"

"Yes, but the anomaly was a vortex of pure time energy. It probably forced predestined years into the crown, locking it into a past state until used."

"And that means...?"

"That _means, _Jake, that the crown most likely had extremely accelerated effects that drove Finn into madness before he even realized he had it on."

Finally, everything was quiet, and no one spoke. The victory over the crown's powers had been a minor one, and now, it had already taken another bearer. Betty stood by her recently reunited boyfriend, Simon. Flame Princess, Princess Bubblegum and Marceline sat around the table, and Jake sat by the window, rubbing Lady Rainicorn's back. Everyone had become exhausted after the fight, but Lady had gotten the worst of it. The injuries they received during the fight with the Time Warper would fade, but now, it seemed that it's defeat hadn't been complete.

"Simon," started Bubblegum, but she was interrupted.

"I'm sorry, Princess, but I doubt that I'll ever get to understand how the anomaly was able to contain and control such power, much less how it was able to cure me of the crown for good."

"Then, I guess...it's over." said Jake. Nobody dared dispute the fact.

Within the freezing blizzard of the flattened Ice Kingdom, a form rose above the snow.

"I am the end, and the beginning," it said. "I am the hand of madness.


End file.
